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 Matthew Sekora
Treasurer, Estimator
Matthew here...
Over the last twenty years this business has changed drastically, in some cases not for the better. Then, deals were made and work was done with a handshake, and it seemed as if majority of our work was done in this fashion (John had me sweeping the floors in the warehouse at the time).
With the innovations of the fax machine, voice mail, e-mail, message pagers and the Internet, the human element is now removed from an industry in which trust and personal relationships are paramount. Twenty years ago, GCs did not give out $100,000 contracts to a voice on a cell phone or a computer generated fax proposal. Today, this is the norm, rather than the exception.
Here in the estimating/sales office, these gadgets have saved a great deal of time. We can pull up any estimate Artisan has submitted within the last ten years from our database. We can track GC's and our competitors and see who's giving and who's getting work. We can look at job costs for up-to-the day productivity on our working jobs and see who's not paying for it. We can even put all of our ugly faces up on the internet for our friends and family to cut-and-paste our heads on other people's bodies (see submissions on the next web update).
But all of this technology does not make our lives easier: Owners want bids yesterday...GC's want that change proposal now for the revisions you were e-mailed a nanosecond ago...Architects issue twelve addendum and the bid date remains tomorrow...We are working longer, harder and faster to keep up with the pace of these machines which merely send information, diminishing the amount of time we are allotted to produce information. It is time to change things and swing the pendulum the other way.
With all of these technological advancements, there is still one "stone-age" practice that cannot be replaced or improved - coffee and a handshake.
I'll see you in your office...
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